Friday, March 31, 2017

We seem to run across a good amount of statues while in Europe and Ireland is no different. Today I will be talking about the Molly Malone statue that we saw while in Dublin.

Oddly, we don't really think much about the statues that we wander by, we normally just snap pictures and just walk on our merry way to the next thing that catches our eye. For today's Past Point of Interest, Molly Malone is a statue based on a song actually and is a popular song in Dublin, commonly referred to as either Cockles and Mussels or In Dublin's Fair City. The statue was unveiled in 1988 and has been moved from it's original location on Grafton Street, Dublin to where it is now, Suffolk Street, Dublin.

Due to people being a bit curious, you will notice that there is a bit of a shine to her breasts. I probably could've learned all this from the plague in front of her now that I look at my picture, but who has the time for that!

Friday, March 24, 2017

While the Shrine Circus isn't only restrict to Toronto, Ontario, this is where I saw them, so I just that as the location. Shrine Circus was something that I visited in 2013 and it was actually quite enjoyable!

There are elephants (which kids could ride), tigers (or lions, I can't quite remember), horses, and more while we were there and although things might have changed now, I do recall having a wonderful time with my wife, my then girlfriend. There were lots of acrobats doing tricks and overall, it was quite the enjoyable show for me.

While I don't know if this will be true in the future, I recall that we got discounted tickets through Groupon making the experience quite inexpensive.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Opened in 1796, Kilmainham Gaol was the county gaol for Dublin at the time and it had its doors open until 1924 when it was shut down, now it is open to public tours where you get to walk inside and see and feel what it is like to be inside Kilmainham Gaol.

We visited the gaol in 2016 when we visited Ireland and if you will only be in Dublin, I would say that it is worth a visit. When we were there, they were celebrating the 100th year of the Easter Rising and it was actually fully booked, so we had to make sure that we bought tickets ahead of time, I'm not sure if that is the case anymore, but just a word of caution.

Having visited the Crumlin Road Gaol in Northern Ireland, we were a bit let down by this one. It has to do with the pace in which you are escorted around in my opinion, you were constantly rushed from one point to another. However, there are a lot of cool looking sights if you have never been to a gaol before.

Friday, March 10, 2017

When you visit Marrakech, you should visit Jemaa el-Fnaa which is an open area market during the day and at night. During the day you will see it as a fairly open area with a few temporary stalls and while we were there, there was a group of snake charmers. Note, if you are not interested in snakes, try to avoid walking too near, the snake charmers we saw were throwing snakes over passerbyers' shoulders in hopes of soliciting pictures which ends up being them asking for money from you.

At night, the square transformers and there are rows upon rows of stalls that pop up. Some that sell you food and snacks, others that sell you souvenirs and much more. Best of all, it is free!

Friday, March 3, 2017

Bloor-Yorkville Icefest is a free event that takes place in Yorkville and has been happening every year for the last few years and happens on one weekend in February.

In 2017, it happened on February 25-26 and we went on February 25 which was unusually warm and you would visibly see that it was too warm for the ice sculptures and they were melting a bit.

The event is free and during this year, TD Bank was there to provide everyone with free cookies, David's Tea was giving out free samples and there were a few other companies that were there to sell some items if you wanted to try them out. Also while there, there was a free scavenger hunt which was really for advertising for Yorkville Village but with a completed scavenger hunt form, we were given a free waffle each at Wafelbar which clearly underestimated the demand since it took about 15-20 minutes to each get our freebies. In Yorkville Village itself, there was a Miele pop-up shop which had a section for free cookie decorations as well as free coffee (lattes, cappuccinos, etc) which was nice.

If you are in the area, I would say that it is a nice walk that might be worthwhile, but I wouldn't go out of your way to come since it is fairly small and you can likely see everything in about 15-20 minutes.